Runelords 46.0 - Dodging a Drake
As Luna waited in the central hall, a dark-skinned woman wearing impressive armour and wielding a two-headed bladed polearm dashed in. She immediately pegged Luna as a new recruit of Avazeen's and ordered her to go into the Evocation hallway: there was a rampaging drake in there that needed to be dealt with. She nudged her pointedly with her weapon, and when it was clear that Luna was complying, the woman turned and hastily made her way down the Necromancy path, ostensibly to fetch Avazeen. Shrugging, Luna left as she considered the possibility of luring the drake into the veil, which would likely fetch her plenty of materials. The Evocation hall was set up much like a large gladiatorial ring with stadium seating. Finding it empty, she stepped into an auxiliary room that had a pair of teleporters. The teleporting pad took her to a new room, dominated by the sight of numerous wizards gleefully fighting the large white drake. She assessed the situation, determined that it would be impossible to lure the drake away under these circumstances, turned on her heel and left without any further action. With a prim step, she returned to the central hall to wait. Virgil and Quint, over in Conjuration, meddled with a series of levers that looked like they might open up a path; they eventually found one, but also unleashed a torrent of water produced by an elemental. The result was them nearly drowning themselves. The water, and the elemental, drained into a large pit in the center of the room as a new hall opened, so they pressed forwards. Virgil, his mood depressed, followed Quint's direction with a polite detachment and subservience. Finding their way into another filthy hallway, they discovered it riddled with cracks and holes, wind whistling through them. Following a strange melodious sound, they discovered a huge swarm of rats being riled by the notes of a pan flute set into the wall. Virgil sighed with resignation and without any regard for his personal safety waded into the knee-deep mound of writhing rodents. Ignoring the rats' bites, he dislodged the flute from the wall; as it fell silent the rats seemed to become calmer. Not entirely certain how to actually play melodies on the instrument, Virgil nonetheless played a long, single note that made every rat stop and sit up; he couldn't make them do anything further, but at least it prevented them from attacking him and Quint as they passed through. The next room was filled with half-cleaned clutter, with what seemed to be numerous half-finished projects of art and science. A dog lay sleeping on a partially reupholstered couch. Sighting another door beyond, the two men tried to move quietly towards it without disturbing the sleeper, but Virgil slipped and banged his knee into a paintbrush that stuck out over a table edge, sending it to the floor in a clatter that woke the dog. Virgil tried to placate the animal, who sat up and said in perfect speech that he was being extremely patronizing. Virgil switched tack immediately from talking to a dog to talking to a man, introducing Quint as a conjurer who had come to learn from the resources in the Runeforge, and himself as no one in particular. The dog sighed and said that they should probably be introduced to the one in charge, as he picked himself up and led them to the far door. Beyond was a sort of spa; the air was thick with humidity, and a large pool of fluid dominated the space. A corpulent man lay sleeping in a chair further in; a large black orb jutted out of his chest. The dog told them to bark loudly to wake him, which he had to do himself after a particularly poor attempt from Virgil did nothing. The man stirred and told off 'Doorman', to which the dog muttered bitterly that his name was 'DoBERman', as he returned to his room and went to work on a painting by holding the brush in his mouth. The large man introduced himself as Jordimandus and questioned why they were there. Virgil changed his story from the one he had told Doberman: the pair were there to seek a solution to the rising ambitions of the Magelord Karzoug. Jordimandus laughed them off: Magelord Sasien would never allow that petty fool to outmatch them. Regardless, Jordimandus supposed that this was the perfect opportunity to claim the central pool for the Magelord of Conjuration; with two new recruits, he could put his long-considered plan to foil the other factions into action. Quint suggested that perhaps they should prepare first, and Jordimandus agreed, easily swayed from having to expend effort before he knew victory would be assured. He waved the pair away to study, telling them to prepare themselves though he gave no further indication as to what they would need to do. Almost immediately, he seemed to fall asleep once more. When they were out of the oppressive spa room, Quint made his way to the disorganized bookshelf and began to pick through it, as Virgil muttered that, though he doubted that the Magelord of Conjuration was still around, he admitted that the epitome of sloth was probably not the worst ancient warlord to have in charge of something. Quint mentioned that they should try and acquire as much knowledge and resources as they could, if their goals were to foil Karzoug and to sever Zara's bond to Luna. Transmutation was opposed by Enchantment and Illusion, while Necromancy was opposed by Enchantment and Abjuration; Virgil told Quint that he would go search the other halls for the Enchantment and Illusory equivalents of ithilium, while he stayed and mined through the books for anything of value to him. Quint was pleased with this arrangement, and was left happily to read as Virgil set out yet again. When he stepped out into the central hallway, he found Luna standing and waiting. He nodded to her and made to pass her by on his way to the hall of Enchantment, but he stopped when she off-handedly mentioned that people in Evocation were fighting the angry drake that had apparently followed them. Biting his lip, he paused conflicted for a moment before dashing towards the hall of Evocation. Finding himself in the colosseum, he looked around and spotted a man sitting in the arena seating. He asked about the drake, and was pointed to an auxiliary room, where he immediately jumped into a teleport ring. Upon the sight of the drake, drastically outnumbered by the wizards, Virgil did not hesitate to cast a Suggestion spell, telling the drake to follow him out of there, take his treasure and return home. The enraged, injured reptile turned on him and seemed ready to attack, but instead moved to dash towards the exit. Nodding, Virgil ran ahead as the drake crashed behind him, with the sounds of thunder and fire crackling as the evokers unleashed their pent fury on their fleeing target. Knowing that he had to stop the wizards advance, and that mercifully teleportation spells were in a school banned to purist evokers, Virgil fished out a scroll of Telekinesis that he had long carried. When he and the drake both entered the main hall, he cast the spell and lifted the statue of Alaznist at the foot of the path, sending it hurling into the tunnel. As it crashed into the walls and ceiling, stone crumbled and the tunnel became an impasse. Casting the spell broke the compulsion on the drake, and it turned to loom aggressively over Virgil as Luna hid behind cover, completely taken off-guard by whatever seemed to be going on. Virgil cast Suggestion again, praying it would work, and indeed the drake hissed angrily as it hunched over and began to sweep up its scattered gold into its wings. Sighing with relief, Virgil began to earnestly help, making a show of knocking the coins over without taking any, apologizing profusely for the intrusion and the misunderstanding. The drake glared at him, muttering about invaders and thieves. When the gold had been scooped up, Virgil offered the vast majority of his own money and gems to the drake as compensation, and the drake seemed to lose the edge of his anger somewhat at the gesture. Cradling his possessions, the drake moved awkwardly back through the portal, leaving in peace. Virgil sighed deeply with relief, glad that the 'innocent' drake had been spared from violence. Luna just regarded him queerly before shaking her head, saying nothing. He said nothing as well, continuing on towards the chambers of Enchantment. While all this went on, Eamon merely continued to eavesdrop on the voices he heard in the Transmutation wing. One was clearly Lucretia, and the other he could not recognize; Lucretia seemed to be trying to convince the other voice of her need of something: two items that were critical to locating and freeing Karzoug. From what he could gather, the Magelord had sealed himself in a demiplane that was neigh impossible to locate, where he would sleep until his minions awoke him at the appropriate time. Lucretia asserted that the time was now and that she needed the spell components safeguarded here to complete her mission, but the other voice seemed addled, unable to comprehend that the plan had even been implemented yet, let alone nearing completion. Eamon decided to continue to wait, parsing what little he could slowly from the muttered voices. Meanwhile, Khyrralien had ascended to the fourth floor with the help of Hawk; each new tier had fancier foods, more luxurious decorations, and the dancers seemed to become even more provocative in their manners and dress. The fourth floor dazzled Hawk who stopped to indulge in the food and wine, but Khyr would not be swayed from his goal of the very top. Khyr's eye caught a particular dancer, a woman adorned like a barbed devil, who seemed to be the center of attention on this floor. Dancing provocatively himself, the two spoke wordlessly and successfully maneuvered themselves through dancing skill up to the fifth and final floor. It was here that one could properly see the throne-like chair that sat empty, and if one looked, they would notice that every party goer assembled gave it furtive, hungry glances from time to time. Breaking away from his partner, Khyr could see that here there were three ladies, sisters, each dressed up as succubi, or perhaps they were succubi themselves. They were the hosts, apparently: everyone sought to prove themselves to them, in order to be granted VIP privileges. One seemed to favour those with forceful personalities, one favoured sweet-talkers, while the third liked those who could play to a crowd. Focusing on the third, Khyr stepped over to speak to her. After a verbal sparring where Khyrralien had to argue his worth to her team of cronies, she seemed satisfied and took him off to one side by himself. Though he had no clear idea of why he wanted it, or what he would find there, Khyr asserted that he wanted to go into the back rooms; the other two sisters flanked him, seemingly satisfied by his level of desire, and all three escorted him towards the closed doors that led to the back.Category:Rise of the Runelords